The
following account gives a detailed and accurate picture of the expulsion and
its immediate consequences for Spanish Jewry. It was written in Hebrew by
an Italian Jew in April or May, 1495.

In the spring of 1492, shortly after the Moors were driven out of Granada,
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews from their lands and
thus, by a stroke of the pen, put an end to the largest and most distinguished
Jewish settlement in Europe. The expulsion of this intelligent, cultured,
and industrious class was prompted only in part by the greed of the king and
the intensified nationalism of the people who had just brought the crusade
against the Muslim Moors to a glorious close. The real motive was the religious
zeal of the Church, the Queen, and the masses. The official reason given for
driving out the Jews was that they encouraged the Marranos to persist in their
Jewishness and thus would not allow them to become good Christians.

"---And in the year
5252 [1492], in the days of King Ferdinand, the Lord visited the remnant of
his people a second time [the first Spanish visitation was in 1391], and exiled
them. After the King had captured the city of Granada from the Moors, and
it had surrendered to him on the 7th [2d] of January of the year just mentioned,
he ordered the expulsion of all the Jews in all parts of his kingdom-in the
kingdoms of Castile, Catalonia, Aragon, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca, the Basque
provinces, the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, and the kingdom of Valencia.
Even before that the Queen had expelled them from the kingdom of Andalusia
[1483]

The King gave them three
months' time in which to leave. It ,vas announced in public in every city
on the first of May, which happened to be the 19th day of the Omer, and the
term ended on the day before the 9th of Ab. [The forty-nine days between the
second of Passover and Shabuot are called Omer days. The actual decree of
expulsion was signed March 31 and announced the first of May, the 19th day
of the Omer. The Jews were to leave during in May, June, and July and be out
of the country by August I, the 8th of Ab.]

About their number there
is no agreement, but, after many inquiries, I found that the most generally
accepted estimate is 50,000 families, or, as others say, 53,000- [This would
be about 250,000 persons. Other estimates run from 100,000 to 800,000.] They
had houses, fields, vineyards, and cattle, and most of them were artisans.
At that time there existed many [Talmudic] academies in Spain, and at the
head of the greatest of them were Rabbi Isaac Aboab in Guadalajara [probably
the greatest Spanish rabbi of his day], Rabbi Isaac Veçudó in
Leon, and Rabbi Jacob Habib in Salamanca [later author of a famous collection
of the non-legal parts of the Talmud, the En Yaakob]. In the last named city
there was a great expert in mathematics, and whenever there was any doubt
on mathematical questions in the Christian academy of that city they referred
them to him. His name was Abraham Zacuto. [This famous astronomer encouraged
the expedition of Vasco da Gama.] . . .

In the course of the
three months' respite granted them they endeavoured to effect an arrangement
permitting them to stay on in the country, and they felt confident of success.
Their representatives were the rabbi, Don Abraham Seneor, the leader of the
Spanish congregations, who was attended by a retinue on thirty mules, and
Rabbi Meïr Melamed, who was secretary to the King, and Don Isaac Abravanel
[1437-1508], who had fled to Castile from the King of Portugal, and then occupied
an equally prominent position at the Spanish royal court. He, too, was later
expelled, went to Naples, and was highly esteemed by the King of Naples. The
aforementioned great rabbi, Rabbi Isaac of Leon, used to call this Don Abraham
Seneor: "Soné Or" ["Hater of Light," a Hebrew pun
on Seneor], because he was a heretic, and the end proved that he was right,
as he was converted to Christianity at the age of eighty, he and all his family,
and Rabbi Meïr Melamed with him . [Seneor and his son-in-law, Meïr,
were converted June 15, 1492; Ferdinand and Isabella were among the sponsors.]
Don Abraham had arranged the nuptials between the King and the Queen. The
Queen was the heiress to the throne, and the King one of the Spanish nobility.
On account of this, Don Abraham was appointed leader of the Jews, but not
with their consent.

The agreement permitting
them to remain in the country on the payment of a large sum of money was almost
completed when it was frustrated by the interference of a prior who was called
the Prior of Santa Cruz. [Legend relates that Torquemada, Prior of the convent
of Santa Cruz, thundered, with crucifix aloft, to the King and Queen: "Judas
Iscariot sold his master for thirty pieces of silver. Your Highness would
sell him anew for thirty thousand. Here he is, take him, and barter him away."]
Then the Queen gave an answer to the representatives of the Jews, similar
to the saying of King Solomon [ProverbS 2 1: 1]: "The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water. God turneth it withersoever
He will." She said furthermore: "Do you believe that this comes
upon you from us? The Lord hath put this thing into the heart of the king."
[Isabella says it is God's will that the Jews be expelled.]

Then they saw that there
was evil determined against them by the King, and they gave up the hope of
remaining. But the time had become short, and they had to hasten their exodus
from Spain. They sold their houses, their landed estates, and their cattle
for very small prices, to save themselves. The King did not allow them to
carry silver and gold out of his country, so that they were compelled to exchange
their silver and gold for merchandise of cloths and skins and other things-
[Ever since 1480 Jews and Gentiles were forbidden to export precious metal,
the source of a nation's wealth.]

One hundred and twenty
thousand of them went to Portugal, according to a compact which a prominent
man, Don Vidal bar Benveniste del Cavalleria, had made with the King of Portugal,
and they paid one ducat for every soul, and the fourth part of all the merchandise
they had carried thither; and he allowed them to stay in his country six months.
This King acted much worse toward them than the King of Spain, and after the
six months had elapsed he made slaves of all those that remained in his country,
and banished seven hundred children to a remote island to settle it, and all
of them died. Some say that there were double as many. Upon them the Scriptural
word was fulfilled [Deuteronomy 28:32]: "Thy sons and thy daughters shall
be given unto another people, etc" [all Spanish Jews, who were still
in Portugal in 1493, were enslaved by King John (1481-1495). The children
were sent to the isle of St. Thomas, off the coast of Africa.] He also ordered
the congregation of Lisbon, his capital, not to raise their voice in their
prayers, that the Lord might not hear their complaining about the violence
that was done unto them.

Many of the exiled Spaniards
went to Mohammedan countries, to Fez, Tlemçen, and the Berber provinces,
under the King of Tunis. [These North African lands are across the Mediterranean
from Spain.] On account of their large numbers the Moors did not allow them
into their cities, and many of them died in the fields from hunger, thirst,
and lack of everything. The lions and bears, which are numerous in this country,
killed some of them while they lay starving outside of the cities. A Jew in
the kingdom of Tlemçen, named Abraham, the viceroy who ruled the kingdom,
made part of them come to this kingdom, and he spent a large amount of money
to help them. The Jews of Northern Africa were very charitable toward them.
A part of those who went to Northern Africa, as they found no rest and no
place that would receive them, returned to Spain, and became converts, and
through them the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled [Lamentations 1:13]: "He
hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back." For, originally,
they had all fled for the sake of the unity of God; only a very few had become
converts throughout all the boundaries of Spain; they did not spare their
fortunes; yea, parents escaped without having regard to their children.

When the edict of expulsion
became known in the other countries, vessels came from Genoa to the Spanish
harbors to carry away the Jews. The crews of these vessels, too, acted maliciously
and meanly toward the Jews, robbed them, and delivered some of them to the
famous pirate of that time who was called the Corsair of Genoa. To those who
escaped and arrived at Genoa the people of the city showed themselves merciless,
and oppressed and robbed them, and the cruelty of their wicked hearts went
so far that they took the infants from the mothers' breasts.

Many ships with Jews,
especially from Sicily, went to the city of Naples on the coast. The King
of this country was friendly to the Jews, received them all, and was merciful
towards them, and he helped them with money. The Jews that were at Naples
supplied them with food as much as they could, and sent around to the other
parts of Italy to collect money to sustain them. The Marranos in this city
lent them money on pledges without interest; even the. Dominican Brotherhood
acted mercifully toward them. [The Dominican monks were normally bitterly
opposed to Jews.] On account of their very large number, all this was not
enough. Some of them died by famine, others sold their children to Christians
to sustain their life. Finally, a plague broke out among them, spread to Naples,
and very many of them died, so that the living wearied of burying the dead.

Part of the exiled Spaniards
went over sea to Turkey. Some of them were thrown into the sea and drowned,
but those who arrived, there the King of Turkey received kindly, as they were
artisans. He lent them money and settled many of them on an island, and gave
them fields and estates. [The Turks needed smiths and makers of munitions
for the war against Christian Europe.]

A few of the exiles were
dispersed in the countries of Italy, in the city of Ferrara, in the [papal]
countries of Romagna, the March, and Patrimonium, and in Rome. . . .

He who said unto His
world, Enough, may He also say Enough unto our sufferings, and may He look
down upon our impotence. May He turn again, and have compassion upon us, and
hasten out salvation. Thus may it be Thy will! ---"

Prescott, W. H., History
of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, 11, Part I, Chap. xvii:
"Expulsion of the Jews from Spain." An interesting. scholarly presentation.

JE, "Spain."

Halper, B., Post-Biblical
Hebrew Literature, "The Advantages of a Republic over a Monarchy,"
11, pp. 221-224. A brief discussion on political science by Isaac Abravanel.

Lindo, E. H., The History
of the Jews of Spain and Portugal, pp. 277-280 contains the decree of expulsion.
Comments on the expulsion by Isaac Abravanel, financial adviser to Isabella,
may be found on p, 284. Another contemporary account occurs on p. 285.

Marx, A., "The Expulsion
of the Jews from Spain," JQR, 0. S., XX (1908), pp. 24off.; JQR, N. S.,
11 (1911-1912), pp. 257-258. This is the complete account of which source
No. 11 is an extract.